Early start.....

Hope you all saw the *blue Moon* last night, I woke around 3 which was her peak, [next month is Solstice the Triple Goddess Solstice, numerically 3,6,9{21.06.2007}] then woke again at 6 so have been up since, got a buzz on to put some more of Sarah's poems uploaded, so another 3 and finished with putting together a background for another, so feeling pretty spaced now and think I shall go n get on with the shrug I promised Jo, who Del has had to go and collect with Musty [their dog] to take to vets as he has been bleeding from paws n mouth, so poor Jo very upset and Dave is working, so needs a chauffeur, she called in tears last night.....
Del got a call from Sammy last night, she went through a tougher time than we had realised and only got out of hospital on Monday, but all does seem to be OK now, poor girl.....

What We See
Judging Others

Though it is human to evaluate people we encounter based on first impressions, the conclusions we come to are seldom unaffected by our own fears and our own preconceptions. Additionally, our judgments are frequently incomplete. For example, wealth can seem like proof that an individual is spoiled, and poverty can be seen as a signifier of laziness—neither of which may be true. At the heart of the tendency to categorize and criticize, we often find insecurity. Overcoming our need to set ourselves apart from what we fear is a matter of understanding the root of judgment and then reaffirming our commitment to tolerance.

When we catch ourselves thinking or behaving judgmentally, we should ask ourselves where these judgments come from. Traits we hope we do not possess can instigate our criticism when we see them in others because passing judgment distances us from those traits. Once we regain our center, we can reinforce our open-mindedness by putting our feelings into words. To acknowledge to ourselves that we have judged, and that we have identified the root of our judgments, is the first step to a path of compassion. Recognizing that we limit our awareness by assessing others critically can make moving past our initial impressions much easier. Judgments seldom leave room for alternate possibilities.

Mother Teresa said, “If you judge people, you don’t have time to love them.” If we are quick to pass judgment on others, we forget that they, like us, are human beings. As we seldom know what roads people have traveled before a shared encounter or why they have come into our lives, we should always give those we meet the gift of an open heart. Doing so allows us to replace fear-based criticism with appreciation because we can then focus wholeheartedly on the spark of good that burns in all human souls.